The latest issue of Adbusters has a riveting (yawn) cover story titled "Hipster: The Dead End of Western Civilization." Here are some choice excerpts for your reading pleasure:"Weve reached a point in our civilization where counterculture has mutated into a self-obsessed aesthetic vacuum. So while hipsterdom is the end product of all prior countercultures, its been stripped of its subversion and originality..."
Lovers of apathy and irony, hipsters are connected through a global network of blogs and shops that push forth a global vision of fashion-informed aesthetics. Loosely associated with some form of creative output, they attend art parties, take lo-fi pictures with analog cameras, ride their bikes to night clubs and sweat it up at nouveau disco-coke parties. The hipster tends to religiously blog about their daily exploits, usually while leafing through generation-defining magazines like Vice, Another Magazine and Wallpaper. This cursory and stylized lifestyle has made the hipster almost universally loathed."
But so I have no intention of refuting this or supporting people who sport "a number of predictable stylistic trademarks: skinny jeans, cotton spandex leggings, fixed-gear bikes, vintage flannel, fake eyeglasses and a keffiyeh," but in all seriousness, really?
I never know how to react when people talk trash on hipsters in an intelligent/glib manner because they're usually describing themselves or at least half of their employees. Either that or they just come off as bitter. D+T contributor Gavin McInnes puts it best - "I've always found that word ['hipster'] is used with such disdain, like it's always used by chubby bloggers who aren't getting laid anymore and are bored."
Let's face it, we all fall under a few of these categories. Personally I like to ride a bike (not a fixed gear, but still), I wear flannel on occasion, I read Vice now and then, I drink PBR, I attend an art opening here and there, I sometimes DJ with an iPod (eep! Don't kill me!!!) and YES ok, I read blogs, and obviously write one, too. There! Are you happy?!
I really don't see what all the big fuss is about, nor do I care to try and figure it out. I like to have fun, and the above things that I just mentioned obviously encourage that. And (to be perfectly honest here) it's these sorts of activities that contain the highest amount of cute boys in any given area. SO SUE ME! There you have it - I like to have fun and I like cute boys.
If that makes me a hipster then bring on the loathing, you bitter Bettys. But don't blame me if you can't get laid. - SK
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